James Gunn's upcoming Peacemaker show acts as an unconventional and unofficial sequel to his recent DCEU debut The Suicide Squad. John Cena will reprise his Suicide Squad role in the upcoming HBO Max series, playing Christopher Smith, a man who will achieve peace at any costs - even if it includes murdering anyone in his way. Audiences first met Peacemaker as part of Amanda Waller's second Task Force X squad as they storm the beaches of Corto Maltese. While Cena's character begins the film as a seemingly slow-witted but violent member of the team, through the course of the film it is revealed that he is much more than that.

In one of The Suicide Squad's shocking twists, it is discovered that Peacemaker has his own side mission - destroy all evidence of Project Starfish and the US' involvement in it. This leads him to kill Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag before Idris Elba's Bloodsport puts a bullet in Peacemaker's neck. The movie's post-credits scene reveals that Peacemaker survived this, though, setting up his eight-episode HBO Max series, which is slated to premiere in January 2022. Peacemaker will take place in both the present and the past, sending Christopher on a new mission while diving deep into why he is the way he is.

Related: Peacemaker's Surprise DC Character Must Payoff The Suicide Squad's Credits

This new mission, according to Gunn, will act as a pseudo-sequel to The Suicide Squad. When asked if he would be interested in directing a sequel to The Suicide Squad, the director replied to a fan on Twitter, explaining that the upcoming series is a sequel to the movie in its own way. He did not elaborate further on what this could mean. Check out his full tweet below:

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With The Suicide Squad already serving as a hybrid reboot-sequel to David Ayer's 2016 film, the continuity of the villainous franchise is already muddled. In a weird way, it makes sense for Peacemaker to be a sequel to the movie partly because Cena's character is one of only a few surviving villains from the film. Bloodsport, Ratcatcher 2, King Shark, Harley Quinn, and Weasel are the only other members of Task Force X to make it out of The Suicide Squad alive.

Whether or not this means any of them could show up in Peacemaker remains a mystery. A few characters from the movie will already be reprising their roles, including Steve Agee's John Economos and Jennifer Holland's Emilia Harcourt. With Gunn's vision for the DCEU being widely praised, it's reassuring to know that Peacemaker will serve as a follow-up to the film, one that could continue to lay the foundation for the franchise in interesting ways. Still, only time will tell just what Gunn's classification of the series as sequel means for Cena's flawed character.

More: The Suicide Squad: Every Character Who Could Return For The Peacemaker Spinoff

Source: James Gunn

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